Flea market to benefit youths

Whether you want to sell or buy items, an Appling community flea market is the place to be Saturday.

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The public and other groups are invited to set up a booth at First Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Appling in a community flea market to benefit Mount Up Ministries, an outreach ministry of three Appling area churches.

"Anybody who wants to come and set up will be welcome," said Tina Smith, an event coordinator. Booths cost $10 each. "You just need to furnish your own table. You can sell anything but food."

The flea market will run from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at First Mount Carmel Baptist at 6269 Cobbham Road in Appling. Free blood pressure checks also will be done on site.

Proceeds from the sale benefit Mount Up Ministries, which was founded about four years ago as a joint effort among First Mount Carmel, Walnut Grove and Rehoboth Baptist churches, said the ministry's coordinator, the Rev. Roscoe Perry, of First Mount Carmel.

The ministry already runs a summer enrichment program for youth in the area, which also provides certified teachers to help children with weak areas in their studies.

"We try to give the kids a little something to do between the time they are out of school in the summer break so they are just not sitting around watching television and that kind of thing," Perry said.

The program also includes field trips and other fun activities for children in June.

The ministry operates the Brown Bag Program, which provides area seniors with a month's worth of non-perishable food items, Perry said. Ministry volunteers also assisted with a recently-completed Habitat for Humanity House in Winfield.

Ministry leaders said they have big goals for the future including expanding current programs and adding new ones.

"We'd like to do more with education, like maybe even helping out with the pre-K program, like some kind of school or something on that level" Perry said. "(We're) trying to enhance the minds of our children a well as help parents."

Ministry volunteers will be selling concessions at the flea market.

For more information or to rent a flea market booth, call Smith at (706) 564-2181.